Survival Instinct
by TigressKama
Summary: She hasn't seen the worst of humanity, but she has seen some pretty bad stuff. They use intelligent creatures in systematic dog fights, but they seem to work fine. Why, exactly, are these naïve idiots with no survival instinct to speak of not dead? The answer is simple. Pokémon. Which they use in the dog fights. "You guys are all so stupid..." We know honey. We know.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, nor will I ever. If I did own it, it wouldn't be for kids and I wouldn't be writing on this site.**

**AN: Ok! I've always liked the idea of people from the real world going to fictional places, but in stories where it happens the characters are usually to welcoming, or the main character doesn't care that they're in a completely foreign place. Hopefully this story won't be like that. If it is, point it out please.**

**Chapter 1: In which shit happens **

The sky was mostly blue, a few grey clouds clumping up and promising rain. I walked on the concrete of the sidewalk, avoiding cracks. A Doberman from the house I was walking past began to bark at me, but I ignored it. The thing was all bark and no bite. The loud tap of my black tennis shoes and clanking sound of my siutcase against the ground helped me ignore the pulsing heat of the day, and I sneezed as dust and dirt flew up my nose from a breeze.

I continued walking, passing identical houses and perfect lawns that were brown in patches from lack of rain. The few people that were outside pointed at me and whispered to each other, sending me small glares and staring. I pulled my hood down and glared at them, making them shrink back. A bit of my black curls got into my eye, and I blew them out of my face. Stupid people really should mind their own buissness.

I continued on my way, and eventually stopped in front of a blue house. It looked like all the others. A three story house with a decent sized porch, large windows, and a chimney. I walked up to the door and brought my fist up to knock, but stopped. What the hell was I doing here? I didn't belong here, and it wouldn't do to impose on their kindness any longer, even if they did invite me to live with them.

I turned to leave, but stopped when I heard the locks on the other side of the blue door unlocking quickly. I turned around, acting like I wasn't about to leave, and the door flung open narrowly missing my face.

I took a step back, and suddenly I had a group of people dragging me into the home. They stopped when the door shut behind me, and I backed myself up against it. Of fucking course. Of course they were watching me. Why wouldn't they? They probably knew me more than I knew myself.

Three figures loomed over me, and one stared up at me from my hip.

By who, I of course mean the Mark family who had me pinned to the door in fear. They were the people who cared for me when no one else would, and when no one else could. They were my sanctuary, my home. The father, Marcus Mark, was a black haired man with brown eyes and white skin wearing a lab coat over a blue T-shirt and black jeans. He was a scientist working on certain things for the government that he couldn't tell us about. He kept many machines in the basement where he worked.

The mother, a black skinned woman with long black hair from Jamaica who had soft green eyes and was wearing a yellow and red dress, worked as a part time artist. She mostly stayed in the home though. Her name was Cala Mark. The last two people were their kids. The tall one was their oldest son and my best friend, Araclus Mark. He was a brown skinned gangly kid with shoulder length brown hair and his mothers green eyes. The short one was the younger sister, Cynthia Mark, a brown skinned little girl with mid back length black hair who had gotten her fathers eyes instead of the mothers. I smiled nervously at them and swallowed down my nervousness.

"Hey guys..." I began. "so... where's my room?" Again I found myself being dragged by the Mark family, and their exuberant cries of, "You'll love it here!" and "Oh, I've got our whole week planned out!" lifted my spirits.

I was dragged through soft walnut halls, stumbling over the black carpet while I tried to keep up with the family. I was taken to a large red room, apparently themed to be a sunset. The floor had black carpet like most of the house, and there was a light orange dresser in the right corner next to a ceiling tall window. It jutted out a little bit, the wall providing a sort of seat. A bed with dark red covers sat in the far right corner. In the far left corner was a door, and when I checked I saw it was a walk in closet with a full body mirror. It was a little dusty, and had little globs of orange and red paint at the edges, but I could clean it later.

I nervously walked out and stood before the family. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words escaped me. So I stood silently. I wanted to say something, anything, to show my gratitude to this family that had given me so much, but I couldn't. Araclus, ever the observant one, walked up to me and took my suitcase with a smile. He set it in the closet before coming back and wrapping his arms around me from behind in a hug. I brought my hands up to hold his wrists.

"Well then." He said. "What do you think? Is it good?" He of course already knew I liked it, but I just had to ask...

"Why theme it sunset?" The family smiled at me, and Cynthia ran up to me to hug my left leg. I ran my hand over her hair to show my thanks, and the comforting arms around me tightened. Cala stepped up and hugged me as well before attemting to fix my messy black hair.

"To symbolize the ending of your old life child. We want this day to be a day to remember." She said before patting me on the head, apparently satisfied with her attempts to fix the mess that was my hair. "Now get to bed. We have a long day tomorr';4e6ow, starting with your Birthday Breakfast!"

"What birthday breakfast?" I asked her.

"Your Birthday Breakfast of course! We would've done it last week, but because of the... family problems we-" Marcus began, but he was interrupted by Araclus.

"That's one way of putting it." He said moodily. Marcus sent him a denouncing glare, and I felt Araclus's cheeks heat up from shame. Marcus then continued.

"Because of family problems we'll have to do it late. Now go to bed. Sorry we couldn't pick you up, but something came up." I nodded my head to show I was fine with it. To be honest, I was fine with being here at all. Araclus let go of me, and walked out of the door following the rest of his family, pulling the door shut behind me. He stopped just as the door was about to shut, and peeked his head through. He opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing. He looked away nervously, but eventually spoke.

"I'm sorry. For what I said earlier. I... I didn't mean to bring that up. What your family did to you was... Inexcuseable." I cut him off before he could continue.

"It's fine. It's behind me now. I don't have to worry about them any more. And if I do... Well, I can safely say I can do what I need to." His face turned sad.

"I'm sorry to hear that"

"I'm not. The world is cruel. I just know that more than others." And then he was gone. I smiled and began to unpack. Araclus really was a sweet guy. I was really looking forward to living here. After all they'd done for me, well, what was one more favor?

_Elsewhere, in the basement_

"Aaaaaannnnddddd THERE!" A bright light filled the otherwise dark room. A large blocky machine started up filling the room with a large whirring noise. Marcus Mark stood hunched over at an opening in the machine with a screw driver in one hand and a bundle of wires in the other. His gloves were covered in grease and his long hair was messy. The bun it was tied in was coming apart from all the times he'd yanked at it in frustration.

Several times Cala had come downstairs to ask if he was okay, but each time he'd assured her that yes, he was fine, no he wasn't hungry, and that he probably wouldn't be going to bed until it was finished. But now he was finished. Finally finished. And now that damn corporation would get off his back. It would have been finished earlier, but they wouldn't tell him what it was for. All they would tell him was that it was urgent.

But, alas, he wasn't supposed to ask many questions. They couldn't take away his free speech, but they could not answer the question or threaten him with death or harm to his family if he did talk. It's just best to not get answers sometimes. No matter how annoying it was.

Now, Marcus isn't stupid. He knows that a machine such as the one he just built will allow others to travel to parralel dimensions. He's proud to have been the first to actually build one. He's also angry that he'll never get the credit. But, that is neither here nor there.

He finishes fixing up the wires and closes the panel with a satisfying thunk. He then presses a button on a remote and sets it on his worktable. A large yawn escapes his mouth. Time to go to bed.

Little did he know, he'd forgotten to lock the door of the basement.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.**

**AN: I don't really have much to say. Expect an update on my other stories soon. Maybe. I've hitten a bump with Refugee. Curse you writters block! And I got really tired near the end. It's almost midnight.**

**'…' = Time Skip**

**Chapter 2: In which more shit happens **

The loud pattering of running filled the otherwise silent house. Cynthia was running from room to room waking up her family, excited for the day. Due to Maura's mean parents they hadn't gotten to celebrate her birthday. But, they didn't have to worry about them anymore. Cynthia wasn't given all the details, but she knew that Maura's parents didn't treat her right. She was smarter than the average bear, and quite proud of that fact!

But her mother didn't need to know that. She was always telling her that being prideful would get her in trouble, so she tried not to be. But it was just so hard! Cynthia reached her brother's room and smiled. The dark blues of her brother's night sky themed room almost hid him from view, along with the piles upon piles of books he had, but she'd had years of training finding his form so she could jump on it. Just to annoy him of course.

She sneaked past the dresser to her left, and past the closet on the wall next to it. Araclus always slept with his head toward the door so he could catch her in the act of her pouncing. He very rarely did, but she still had to be careful. She tip toed up to his bed. She always thought it was weird, his bed that is. It was up high off the ground and surrounded by green curtains. He'd told her that he had it that way so it would feel like he was sleeping in a tree, but she still didn't get it. Trees were uncomfortable. And unsafe. No, she preffered her bed low to the ground, the mattress touching the floor. The ground was so much better than the trees.

Slowly, she climbed up the ladder, trying to avoid making the wood creak. She succeeded, and took a moment to watch him sleep. His long brown hair had fallen out of his red hair tie, napping horribly in places. Drool leaked out of his mouth, low snores escaping his throat. He looked so peaceful...

"Wake up!" Cynthia screamed, and then she jumped as high as she could. She landed straight on his stomach, and Araclus let out a surprised choke of pain, and rolled over on to his side. Cynthia quickly booked it out of the room. Although she did pop her head back in to tell him good morning before running away laughing.

"Good morning to you too Cynthia..." Araclus wheezed. What was the point of him sleeping toward the door if he never caught her before she bruised his ribs? He slowly rolled out of his fetal position to assess the damage. He moved his dark green bed sheets out of the way. Yikes... Oh yeah that was gonna bruise. Cynthia, you damn tyrant. Why couldn't you let a guy get some sleep? It was summer for god's sake!...

What day was it again? Tuesday or Wednesday? And what time was it? For all his genius with time and space he never keep track of it. Araclus carefully scaled down his ladder, mindful of his abused ribcage. The bed stand next to his bed held a clock. He could check the time and date there.

Where was his clock? There were only books here... After staring at the pile of books for about a minute and a half Araclus facepalmed and resolved to move the books out of the way. No one had moved his clock, but he had moved books. Logically, the clock was under the books. Uh, he was not a morning person.

7:45. It was 7:45 in the morning. Why, exactly, did she wake him up so early? She's never even up before 8:00 usually! Was today some special event or something? Maybe he could ask Maura. She was always good with this sorta thing.

Fuck! He'd completely forgotten about Maura! How could he forget about Maura? Bad Araclus, bad! Before he could find a newpaper to hit himself over the head with for a good laugh, he resolved to go check on her. After coffee. He never talked with Maura before his morning coffee. She had this habit of reading into things that he didn't want her to know about. That, and he was useless without it.

Ten minutes and a black coffee with two sugars later, he was ready to go talk to her. He padded up the stairs toward what was now her room. Passing his parents room, (they and Cynthia were jumping on the bed) he began to get nervous. He'd known her for years, and that does cause some... Unwanted feelings.

He'd had a crush on her far about five months now. He'd thought it would fade, but it was still going strong. He, of course, blamed his sixteen year old hormones. And thus, the crush was mostly ignored. But, in moments like this, he was striked yet again that this was actually happening. She was actually here. She was safe, with him.

He shook the unwanted thoughts out of his head. Maura didn't need him like that. What she needed was a good friend, and god damn it she was getting one!

If any of his guy friends were to hear what he just thought, they'd ask him if he was crazy, and why he was willingly friend zoneing himself. He would then tell them to shut up.

Finally, he'd made it to her room. Yet again he thought that this house was way to big. Not that he was complaining. But there were just... So many stairs. He hated stairs. Everyone hated stairs. He opened her door, and went to wake her up. Her giant night shirt covered most of her cream colored skin, and her long black hair had napped up horribly. She had gone into one of her weird sleeping positions again. Her back was curved, she was on her side, and her arms were in front of her. Araclus took a moment to wince. Her neck was going to hate her today.

He tapped her shoulder and she jerked awake. She looked around for a second, confusion in her drowsy eyes, before she saw him. A bright smile lit her face, and she hugged him.

"Good morning Araclus!" She said. Araclus's heart skipped a beat, but he forced down the impending blush and replied.

"Morning Maura. Breakfast?" He asked. Her stomach growled, and they both laughed.

"Well there's the answer you wanted!" She said. He nodded, and she got up to get her clothes. As she searched through her closet he left the room.

"We're all going to go shopping after your Birthday Breakfast, so put on something nice."

_Later on, in the kitchen_

Cake. They were giving her cake pancakes with bacon. How do you even make cake pancakes? Maura didn't know, and didn't care. Mainly because she was to busy stuffing her face with them. They were just so good and-

oh my god this one was red velvet.

A red velvet pancake. If she didn't think this family was geniuses before, she sure as hell does now. Eventually Maura finished her pancakes and got up to put her plate away. The kitchen was fairly large, all the appliances lineing the walls with a circular table in the middle. Everyone one else had already finished eating. They were just waiting on her so they could go.

The family, seeing she was done, moved outside to the car. They all piled into the van and made their way to the mall.

_At the mall_

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Maura asked.

"Sure. Pick out whatever you want." Marcus said.

"I mean, we're in a mall. And you're telling me to pick out whatever I want with no limit. I could put you in debt today."

"I'm sure."

"Are you sure you're sure?"

"I'm sure I'm sure!"

"Are you sure you're sure you're su-"

"Just go fucking pick something damn it!"

"Okay, okay! I'm going, I'm going!"

…

"I can't beileve you only bought an MP3 player. You could've gotten anything you wanted. Anything! But you only got an MP3 player. Maybe we should take you to the doctor. That can't be normal behavior." Araclus teased. Maura gave him a look before putting her nose in the air snootily.

"I'll have you know that I also got fifty dollars to spend on ITunes!"

"Yeah, no. You still got to little."

"Fuck you!"

"Hahahahahaha!"

…

The day was winding down and coming to an end. Cynthia refused to go to bed, so the family was chasing her around the house trying to catch her. Marcus and Cala had already given up. They said that she would eventually tire herself out and they'd find her somewhere on the floor later.

Maura and Araclus didn't want her catching a cold so they didn't give up.

"Cynthia come on, please! I'm tired. Go to bed." Maura shouted after the terror that is a little girl. Cynthia peeked around the corner of the hallway.

"No! You go to bed. You're the tired one!"

"God damn it Cynthia!"

"Ha!"

And she took off again. They ran through the hallways for hours. Maura eventually found Araclus asleep on the floor. She glared at him, but he only snored louder. She sighed and tried to track down the child again.

"Cynthia! Cynthia where are you?" Maura wandered down into the basement. Machinery filled every corner of the room. A bulky one commandeered the middle of the room and had a large blue button. Yeah, best not to touch anything in here. Just then she saw Cynthia try to duck out of the room.

"Oh no ya don't!" Maura shouted. She jumped through the air and caught her. "OKay. I've caught you. Bed!"

"Awww I don't wanna." Cynthia shouted. she wriggled out of Maura's arms and stomped her foot.

"I don't care. It's way past your bedtime." Cynthia sighed and turned to go, but spotted the machine.

"Hey, Maura, what do you think this blue button does?" She asked.

"I don't know, but it's one of your dad's machines so don't touch it."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Now come on. You need to take a shower." Maura turned to leave thinking Cynthia would follow her. Cynthia turned to leave, but was drawn back to the button. What would it do? She loved her dads machines. She thought they were cool...What would it hurt?

Cynthia ran to the machine and pressed the button. A loud whirring noise started, and a swirling purple mass appeared on the platform of the machine. It reached out to Cynthia, but before it could grab her Maura grabbed her arm and threw her out of the way. Maura disappeared and the whirring stopped. The purple mass was gone, and Cynthia sat sprawled on the ground wondering where Maura was, and thinking that she was in so much trouble.

Meanwhile, Maura was having a panic attack. Where the hell was she?!


End file.
